Lemon-Rosemary Pork Loin with Cherry Sauce

The classic fruit and pork combo gets a bold update: Slather the meat with a paste of garlic, mustard, lemon and rosemary, then serve with ruby red cherries. This recipe multiplies easily for entertaining.

Salty Caramel and Pecan Oatmeal Cookies

These cookies come with a friendly warning: Chewy caramel, toasted pecans and a flurry of sea salt will make you popular. Very popular. A product called caramel bits gives these cookies great flavor and chewy texture. Some supermarkets carry them, and they’re widely available online. (Search for Kraft Caramel Bits.) Take care to follow recipe directions when baking: caramel bits melt quickly.

Toasted Fennel-Lemon Cake

This moist beauty begs for a mug of afternoon tea. Fennel seeds add the faintest hint of licorice flavor, just enough to make the cake stand out from the other Bundts in the room. We like the sweeter flavor of Meyer lemons in this cake. Look for them sold in bags at large supermarkets. If you substitute regular lemons, reduce the zest to 2 tablespoons.

Get your apple a day in a new way. Morsels of fruit add nutrition and sweet-tart zing to Apple Harvest Chili.

Chipotle peppers infuse campfire smoke in grilled Sweet and Spicy Steak Salad. Pick a pepper: Chipotles are smoked jalapeños. Most recipes call for the canned kind, which are available at big supermarkets and come in flavorful adobo sauce. Puree or mince the extra peppers with the sauce, and freeze in a flattened resealable plastic bag. Break off pieces when you want to add smoky heat to a recipe. (One tablespoon of puree equals about one pepper.) We also like Tabasco’s chipotle sauce; it’s milder, but super convenient.